Broken Handle Mount CT-22

[Dave Ronyak]

Recent Stupid Blunder -- while in a hurry to vacuum up a pile of hand plane shavings, with my back to the CT-22E dust extractor, I tried to "stretch" the boom arm connected hose just a little further and tipped the CT-22 onto its handle. [Of course, I had not taken the time to properly setup the anti-tip foot braces!]  Because there was a tall stack of Systainers and Sortainers attached to the CT-22E, it crashed hard onto the concrete floor of my garage and broke the lower mounting points of the handle to the CT-22E, cracking the black plastic of the perimeter frame of the CT-22E in which the bottom ends of the handle mounting bracket are mounted.  The middle mounting blocks and screws appear to be undamaged.  The handle and boom arm can now be rocked slightly fore and aft due to there only being a single rigid mounting point located at those upper screw block mounting points.

Sorry, I do not have any photos of the damage at this time, and could not locate at FestoolUSA website any Festool photo of the handle mounting to the CT-22 that depicts the the lower mounting area.

Has anyone else experienced this type of breakage?

Any thoughts on making self-repairs to the handle mounting?  I plan to disassemble the boom arm and handle to effect repairs.

Has anyone tried to glue any Festool components made of plastic?

My hunch is that the broken component is made of ABS plastic, but that is only a hunch/guess.

If 'yes', what kind of glue did you use?

Any ideas on reinforcing the repair area?  

 

[peter halle]

Dave,

I am not in your direct situation, but I can attest to the fact that acetone and lacquer thinner can be used to weld abs.  You can also get abs cement in the plumbing supply area of any big box store.

If you are looking for a re enforcement of areas and aren't worried about appearance then you might want to do a search for InstaMorph which is a low temp moldable plastic.

Just some thoughts for you.

Peter

 

[Frans]

MEK (Methyl ethyl ketone) works alot better on ABS than acetone or lacquer thinner. I use it regularly to repair Lego parts. But I don't know if the CT22 is made of ABS. For some reason, the Lego bricks in my household only seem to fit inside the CT22, not on the outside of it.

 

[downtheroad]

I've seen this stuff called Q-BOND at my airbrush supplier, Coast Airbrush. Looks like it might be good for this kind of repair. Q-BOND
Also found this:
Repairing motorcycle plastic part with Q-BOND

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Thanks for your replies!!

On close inspection of my broken CT-22E, there is now a small gap where the bottom housing broke due adjacent to both bottom ends of the handle tubes.  Rocking the handle does not close these gaps.  Q-Bond or some other gap filling adhesive seems to make much sense provided the adhesive bonds to the plastic material of the housing.  The manner in which the repair area is built up with use of Q-Bond and its supplied fillers to form a layered gusset also makes much sense in trying to restore and possibly even increase structural strength.  I can envision Q-Bond being excellent for repair of automotive bumper covers in which the mounting points on the back side are often broken while the rest of the cover is relatively undamaged and reusable. 

Before reading your reply posts I bought a twin-syringe package of a marine-grade epoxy in which one component has a filler.  It, too, is supposed to be suitable for a wide range of plastic materials.

I have not take the CT-22E apart yet to begin the repair process.

Dave R.

 

[AlexThePalex]

I don't have my CTL 22 anymore so I can't confirm exactly how this should fit, but to ensure structural strength I would place a 2 mm metal plate inside the tub as shown in red below and secure the handle mount to it with some screws. I wouldn't put all my trust in a glue job for this. The handle is used to push the vac around so it needs to be able to take some force.

[attachthumb=1]  

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Alex,  I generally agree with your recommendation and will look for opportunities to add reinforcement to back up any mechanical fasteners and to spread out any mechanical load applied to the housing through the handle.

Dave R.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

I spoke with David McGibbon today at FestoolUSA HQ in Indiana. 

He confirmed that a new chassis is available as a spare/repair part, currently priced at slightly over US$87 plus shipping.  He also indicated the chassis is made of ABS and thus recommended a solvent type glue if repair of the old chassis is to be tried.

Dave R.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Here are some photos of "the fix" which involved sequentially gluing portions of the chassis using black ABS piping glue and cyanoacrylate glue (aka Super-Glue after using the primer included in the package which I think was a type of alcohol that did not melt the ABS chassis on contact).

Note the reinforcement layer added to the exterior corners of the chassis.  I made these from a piece of ABS drain pipe, cutting to size with a hacksaw and pre-shaping the reinforcements prior to gluing them onto the chassis.  I heated the reinforcement patches with a hot air gun, then pressed them in position with gloved hands.  I used the cyanoacrylate adhesive to secure them because by this stage of the repair I realized the ABS pipe joint glue that I had was too rubbery to create a rigid joint.

I used the reassembled machine tonight.